Shuttle’s cooling system did its job admirably, and the smart fans kept the compact PC surprisingly quiet considering the firepower within. The case became warm on the left side where the CPU’s hot air heated the grille, but the compartmentalised design kept the rest of the system relatively cool. Performance was bang on the mark too – we measured 1.69 in our benchmarks. Compared to a full-sized system, such as Fujitsu Siemens’ Esprimo P5905 midi-tower PC the same CPU, chipset and memory speed scored only1.61.
We were impressed by the XPC SD31P because of the intelligent way it handles cooling and keeps fan noise under control. But it also has other benefits, such as three hard disk bays (if you forego a floppy drive), an external SATA port, easy memory access and the freedom to choose onboard or discrete graphics.
And, naturally, the option for dual-core processing brings its own advantages, tackling multiple tasks with ease and providing a good dose of future-proofing. The potential of reaping these rewards in a quiet, compact chassis are enticing and, while it’s too expensive for deployment in numbers, it’s a great choice.
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